Peter Gill’s Something In The Air on the Jermyn Street Theatre does precisely what you anticipate from a Peter Gill play
“You took relationships as if they were the next train”
In some methods, I actually am my very own worst enemy. I’ve typically discovered that I’ve wished to love Peter Gill performs way more than I truly do – his tendency in the direction of the elegiac and abstruse needing sturdy route to keep away from being ponderous and passionless. But throw in solid and on this case, the chance to see Ian Gelder in as intimate an area because the Jermyn Street Theatre, and I overrode my higher instincts.
That’s to not say that Something In The Air is a foul play in any respect, however relatively that it conformed to the decrease aspect of my expectations. Christopher Godwin and Ian Gelder play Alex and Colin, a pair of aged males who’ve discovered a connection within the care house the place they reside. And from their cozy chairs, holding fingers, they regale us with tales, a potted queer historical past that – lest we neglect – doesn’t must stretch too far again to a time when homosexuality was unlawful.
But their tales aren’t simple and nor are their presentation. Reflecting the ephemeral nature of reminiscences, the complexities of queer histories and the challenges of private LGBT+ experiences each previous and current is a mighty enterprise and one which is sensitively thought of. It doesn’t nevertheless all the time make for essentially the most edifying theatrical expertise, as is the case right here underneath Gill’s co-direction with Alice Hamilton.
Both previous and current have a further pair of characters. Clare (Claire Skinner) and Andrew (Andrew Woodall) are the niece and son who would deny the silver foxes their love, while probably getting it on themselves. And Gareth (Sam Thorpe-Spinks) and Nicholas (James Schofield) seem as former connections from the previous, the exact particulars of which uncoil by means of the tangled internet of phrases. There’s a lot potential however little emotional heft to any of this supporting work.
The opaqueness of the narrative, even with such a brief operating time, signifies that buying the playscript programme feels virtually a necessity. And to be trying to find readability by studying on the journey house doesn’t fairly really feel the purpose. The wilful opaqueness provides little and the awkward staging stumbles round Alex and Colin of their chairs relatively than flowing, additional hampering the way in which wherein the play reaches us.